A part of the Navajo's mythology

Matthews, Washington

The American Antiquarian, 1883.

Offprint from the American Antiquarian for April, 1883. 18 pages. First translation of Dine Bahane, the Navajo creation story in English. Publishers original pink paper wraps. Compliments of W. Matthews stamped to front wrap, to O.M. Carter (Oscar Martin Carter), his stamp and contemporary paste note to front wrap. Slight soiling to wraps. Pencil note to final page. Most leaves separating from the single cord binding. Pamphlets in American history., Indians ;, I 323.

Washington Matthews was a surgeon in the United States Army, ethnographer, and linguist known for his studies of Native American peoples, especially the Navajo. The Bureau of American Ethnology assigned Matthews to Fort Wingate, near what is now Gallup, New Mexico. It was there that Matthews came to know the people who would become the subject of his best known work, the Navajo. His work on the Navajo rejected previous thinking about the complexity of Navajo culture, dispelling Dr. Leatherman's account “that the Navajo have no traditions nor poetry, and that their songs "were but a succession of grunts.” Dr. Matthews discovered that they had a multitude of legends, so numerous that he never hoped to collect them all: an elaborate religion, with symbolism and allegory; and many prayers and songs relating to all subjects. Matthews is said to have been initiated into various secret Navajo rituals.